Gavilan will support agents along the Delaware, Maryland coast as part of new role

Chiqui Gavilan, an accomplished real estate professional in Delaware and New York, has been named as a sales manager for Long & Foster Real Estate, the No. 1 independent residential real estate company in the country. Gavilan will be based out of Long & Foster’s Bethany Beach, Del., office, where she’ll work with Branch Manager Dottie Wells, and and will support the brokerage’s team of sales associates and offices from Ocean City, Md., to Lewes, Del.

Licensed in both Delaware and New York, Gavilan joined the Long & Foster family in 2011, working as a sales associate with the Rehoboth Beach office. Since then, she and her business partner and wife, Marisa Chaves, have earned top honors for their team’s sales achievements with the firm. The Chaves-Gavilan Team, for example, ranked among the top 10 Long & Foster teams in the Eastern Shore last year and were named to the company’s President’s Club. Together, Gavilan and Chaves have more than 25 years of combined experience and over $100 million in lifetime residential real estate sales.

In her new management position with Long & Foster, Gavilan will rely on her sales experience to help other real estate professionals achieve success in the business. She will work with the management teams in Long & Foster’s Ocean City, Rehoboth, Lewes and Bethany Beach offices to train agents on how to navigate the ever-changing real estate market and best support their clients. Additionally, Gavilan will help Long & Foster in its recruitment efforts, working with both new Realtors and experienced top producers.

“It’s an exciting time to work in real estate, and I’m thrilled for the opportunity to help the many sales associates who call Long & Foster’s southern Delaware and Ocean City, Md., offices home,” said Gavilan. ” I truly believe our success is ultimately measured by the benefits realized by our clients. So as sales manager, my primary aim will be to empower our agents in coastal Delaware and Ocean City to leverage the exceptional resources of Long & Foster to their clients’ maximum advantage and benefit.

“With the wealth of technology and marketing resources that Long & Foster offers, as well as our exceptional leadership team, I’m confident we’ll continue to grow our firm and our team of sales professionals.”

Prior to entering the real estate industry, Gavilan had several successful careers in the nonprofit, corporate and legal arenas. A graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and Georgetown Law, she served as a program officer at The National Endowment for Democracy, a nonprofit in the nation’s capital dedicated to strengthening democratic institutions abroad through non-governmental initiatives. Following her graduation from law school, she worked as an associate attorney at the New York City law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, until she was recruited by Reuters in 1999. At Reuters, Gavilan held several senior legal and business positions and was a founding member of the company’s Diversity Advisory Council.

“Supporting today’s real estate sales professionals takes a highly knowledgeable, experienced leader,” said Gary Scott, president of Long & Foster Real Estate. “We are confident that adding Chiqui to the Long & Foster leadership team will result in the synergy that our agents thrive on. This is how our company has continued to help local buyers and sellers meet their homeownership goals for more than 45 years.”

An active volunteer in her community, Gavilan has served on several nonprofit boards over the years. She is a recipient of the National Association of Cuban American Women’s Achievement Award and was recently appointed by Gov. Jack Markell to serve on the Delaware Commission for Women for a three-year term ending in August 2017. Gavilan also volunteers as the chair of the Education Committee of the Sussex County chapter of the Women’s Council of Realtors.

Gavilan, who is originally from Havana, Cuba, lives in Rehoboth Beach with Chaves. They have one son, Luis, who is a freshman at La Salle University in Philadelphia. In her spare time, Gavilan enjoys striped bass fishing, golf, pickleball and non-fiction reading.

For more information, visit www.LongandFoster.com.